1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a packaging apparatus and a packaging method for wrapping a packaging material around side surfaces of a loaded object which is loaded on a pallet.
2. Description of the Related Art
As shown in FIG. 9, in a conventional packaging apparatus 100 for planographic printing plates, a single-faced corrugated fiberboard 102 is drawn out by nip rollers 112 from a single-faced corrugated fiberboard roll 102A which is wound up in the shape of a roll. The single-faced corrugated fiberboard 102 is wrapped on the side surfaces of a stack 106 of planographic printing plates which are sealed by inner packaging paper and are stacked on a pallet 110 on a turntable 108A of a wrapping device 108.
In such a packaging apparatus 100, it is difficult in light of the mechanisms of the wrapping device 108 to stop the wrapping operation carried out by the wrapping device 108, after the preceding single-faced corrugated fiberboard 102 is completely drawn out from the preceding single-faced corrugated fiberboard roll 102A, and join together, with a joining device 116, of the trailing end of the preceding single-faced corrugated fiberboard 102 and the leading end of a subsequent single-faced corrugated fiberboard 104.
Therefore, when the length of the single-faced corrugated fiberboard 102 wound around the single-faced corrugated fiberboard roll 102A becomes shorter than the length needed to wrap around the stack 106, the single-faced corrugated fiber board 102 is cut by a cutter 114 and the trailing end of the preceding single-faced corrugated fiberboard 102 is joined to the leading end of the subsequent single-faced corrugated fiberboard 104. However, with this method, a significant amount of the single-faced corrugated fiberboard 102 is wasted without being used, which results in wasting resources.
A conventional device has been conceived of, which connects the trailing end of a preceding packaging material with the leading end of a subsequent packaging material (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 5-97123). In this device disclosed in JP-A No. 5-97123, when the object to be packaged is small, the packaging material is reliably prevented from running out during the wrapping thereof. However, in this device, when the object to be packaged is large, there is a possibility that the packaging material runs out during wrapping and there arise problems similar to those of the packaging apparatus 100.